He also said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say:

‘After me, you will encounter favoritism.’”

Then, when Umar ibn al-Khattab distributed garments among the people, and so on.

Abu Yala recorded it (945): Zakariyya ibn Yahya Zahmawayh narrated to us, from Ibn Abi Zaidah, through the same chain. Ibn Hibban also recorded it through Abu Yala’s route (7279).

Its narrators are trustworthy—though Ibn Ishaq uses an ambiguous ‘from’ transmission formula—except for Ibn Shafi, for whom I could find no biographical entry in the reference works available to me.

I later found him mentioned in al-Bukhari’s al-Tarikh al-Kabir, but it contains neither criticism nor accreditation of him.

As for al-Haythami’s statement in al-Majma (10/33), following Ibn Shafi’s narration:

“It was narrated by Ahmad, and its narrators are trustworthy, except that Ibn Ishaq practises tadlis, though he is trustworthy,”

this is an error, either on his part or on the copyist’s. He meant to say “Abu Yala,” but said “Ahmad,” for it is not found in Ahmad’s Musnad. Rather, Ahmad has in it (4/352–353), through the route of Qatadah, from Anas, from Usayd ibn Hudayr, a report attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with the wording:

“After me, you will encounter favoritism, so be patient …”

the remainder of the hadith being as cited earlier, to which I alluded in my statement, “an addition through another route,” in al-Bukhari’s narration. Muslim also recorded it (6/19), and al-Tirmidhi declared it authentic (2190). *